Libertarian Party Chairman Nicholas Sarwark bragged about the prospect of a potential presidential bid by Rep. Justin Amash (L-MI) handing Biden a win in Michigan in November in an interview with Detroit News on Wednesday.
“Based on how [Gov. Gary] Johnson did in New Mexico, if the last Michigan contest was decided by 10,000 votes, I’m pretty sure having a Michigander … on the ballot just takes Michigan off the board for the president,” Sarwark stated.
Trump won Michigan, a vital swing state, by a margin of just 0.23% of the vote in 2016.
Michigan political strategist Adrian Hemond suggested Amash may be motivated by a desire to specifically deny Trump a Michigan victory.
“A certain amount of this is ego driven because [Amash is] clearly not going to win,” Hemond said. “But the president only won Michigan by 10,000 votes, so it doesn’t take all that many to have an impact on the election.”
Though Amash remains largely unknown nationally, he has a dedicated following among some libertarians and conservatives in Michigan’s 3rd congressional district, which he has represented since 2011.
Amash, however, seemed to deny that his plan was merely to take Trump down, stating that he believed he had a legitimate chance of winning the presidential election, and appearing to proclaim himself a historic figure.
“In history, you can have moments where there’s a sea change, and this seems to be one of those moments where another party can rise up and displace one of the existing major parties, or perhaps both of them,” Amash said.
